A second reason is that the media, particularly the Republican media, anointed Rudy Giuliani too early. Strangely enough, they not only ruined other campaigns, but they ended up ruining Giuliani’s campaign by this premature coronation. If Rudy Giuliani hadn’t seemed poised to take the whole thing in early 2007, many of us would have waited much longer to start looking for candidates to support. I dind’t want to think about presidential politics in early 2007, but I began following those threads because I wanted to stop Rudy Giuliani. Once I started following the threads, I started picking candidates. If the whole process hadn’t been rushed, maybe someone else would have had time to join the race.
***That strikes me as true. I picked a candidate much earlier in this cycle than I ever would have before. I think it was for the reason you pointed out. And I was surprised to find that Hunter really did fit my conservative checklist. That’s never happened before.
I'm not as strongly pro-life as Mr. Hunter is, and that issue was a concern for me in supporting Mr. Hunter. However, I don't believe that the situation would have changed enough over the next four or eight for our differences to matter. Otherwise, Mr. Hunter was a great match on the issues.
My concern with Mr. Hunter was always executive ability. He's never run an organization anything like the administrative branch of the federal government. I'm not certain whether he would be effective. That concern didn't stop me from supporting him when I realized that he was right on so many issues.
Bill